These reports confirm that at least six NATO vessels are in the Black Sea, meaning that Russian warnings that warships from the western alliance now outnumber their own fleet anchored off the western coast of Georgia are not as far off the mark as is claimed.

If the port plan were to go ahead, Russian vessels and warships from the US Sixth Fleet, based in Italy, would face one another in the Mediterranean for the first time since the Cold War when the Soviet navy was based in Tartus.

With the invention of the steam engine came the substitution of steam power for sail, and of iron for wood in warships; with the introduction of longer ranged rifled guns and improvements in metallurgical practice, came all the new developments in the use of metals and minerals that have since been applied to military needs.